Satirical Coronavirus poster that may come true in Florida
As we indicated several days ago, there is a dangerous split right now between Democratic and Republican officials in their response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Nowhere is this split more apparent than in Florida.
The state of Florida is near the top in both highest median age and highest percentage of seniors (age 65 and over) of any state. As seniors, they are more likely to support Republicans. And not coincidentally, many of these seniors live in a state of fear. This includes of death, fear of running out of money before death, built-in tribal fear of minorities (if they are older white folks), fear of change, fear of technology, etc. Republicans play to these fears (recall, for example, Trump’s initial presidential campaign announcement focusing on rapist, drug-dealing immigrants from Mexico; as well as the “Caravan.”) Likewise, Republican propaganda network Fox News plays up these fear narratives, including Scary Brown People (Blacks = “Thugs,” Latinx = “Illegals,” Muslims = “Terrorists”), as well as that other fear, “Big Bad Government.”
Consistent with such narratives, Republican governors and other officials are not taking Coronavirus seriously enough. In Florida, first of all, there is no statewide “stay at home” order. Governor Ron DeSantis never even closed Florida’s beaches. Rather, DeSantis has issued individual orders that are more akin to baby steps, including suspending vacation rentals and requiring visitors arriving from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to self-quarantine for 14 days. These kinds of steps are nowhere near what would be needed (essentially, a statewide “stay at home” order, as is the case in many other states) to bend the curve of fast-growing Coronavirus cases and deaths in Florida.
Governor DeSantis also took the opportunity to blame “foreigners” for Florida’s increasing Coronavirus infections and deaths:
Ainsley Earhardt on a cruise ship scheduled to dock in Ft. Lauderdale: "A lot of Floridians are really worried about that, because there's a lot of people infected on the cruise ship."
FL Gov. Ron DeSantis: "And not only that, I mean, I think a lot of these are foreigners." pic.twitter.com/JNxFUuENOt
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 30, 2020
As long as Republican officials in Florida and elsewhere continue to rely on false frames instead of addressing the Coronavirus emergency head-on, the number of cases and deaths will continue to increase at a higher rate than needs to be the case. And then what will happen to Florida’s seniors and other residents, especially the ones who vote Republican, when their artificially-inflated fears bump up against real deaths in substantial numbers of people they know, due to Trump’s and Republican governors’ mishandling of the Coronavirus threat? Will some Floridians make the correct associations and reasoning, and push their officials to take proper steps? We can hope so, but as we know, facts bounce off frames when it comes to Republicans.
Photo by Cayobo, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/7EXOVQ
